Kazuyuki Nakai

Kazuyuki Nakai is a highly experienced Japanese Patent Attorney and intellectual property specialist. Mr. Nakai’s experience includes all aspects of intellectual property law, including patent and trademark portfolio management.  Prior to joining Maier & Maier, Mr. Nakai served as in-house counsel and intellectual property manager for a multi-national corporation. In his prior roles, Mr. Nakai has been in charge of administration of patent and trademark rights, developing strong intellectual property positions, soliciting new inventions for protection and commercialization, intellectual property training and coordination with engineers and business units, as well as preparing intellectual property related reports, opinions, and searches. Before entering the intellectual property field, Mr. Nakai worked as a sound engineer in the United States and Japan.

Mr. Nakai is a Japanese Patent Attorney and he obtained his Bachelor of Economics degree from Chuo University in Tokyo, Japan.

Kathleen Cooney-Porter

Ms. Cooney-Porter has practiced Trademark law for almost 30 years. Most recently, she worked as a consultant providing expert advice on trademark prosecution, trademark evaluation, trademark branding, and managing outside counsel for a California-based start-up.

Prior to her position as a consultant, she was appointed as Senior Trademark Advisor to the Office of the Under Secretary and Director of The United States Patent and Trademark Office.  While serving in this role, she participated in the Under Secretary’s external and internal meetings on a regular and recurring basis ensuring that the views of the Under Secretary were communicated in an accurate, consistent, and professional manner. She also partnered with USPTO Business Units to ensure Under Secretary’s vision and goals were considered when creating and implementing trademark programs and policies and built alliances and consensus by sharing knowledge and responding to, addressing, and elevating high level concerns promptly. Ms. Cooney-Porter also worked with Department of Commerce, other Administration agencies and Congress to ensure that all groups were notified timely and provided accurate pre-briefs, as necessary, concerning any significant agency announcements. She reviewed Solicitor’ s briefs prior to filing with Federal Circuit and consulted with Solicitor’s Office and Department of Justice on two significant Supreme Court cases. She reviewed all documents pertaining to any trademark matter including but not limited to operations, examination, trademark rules of practice, legal briefs, and memoranda for final review by the Under Secretary. She assisted Trademark Operations on several anti-counterfeiting efforts and policies including negotiations with the National Crime Prevention Council on a 5-year joint project to educate the public of dangers of counterfeits. Contract signed Fall 2020. She attended the Office of Policy and International Affairs (OPIA) round table with other government officials on anti-counterfeiting efforts and policies.

Prior to her position at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, she was a Principal at Muncy, Geissler, Olds & Lowe, P.C., since 2016, advising clients on how to enhance, secure, leverage and enforce their marks and brand portfolio, and as a Managing Partner at Obion, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt, P.C., where she managed the Trademark and Copyright practice groups and represented clients before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB).

During her tenure in private practice, Ms. Cooney-Porter served a three-year term as an appointee to the USPTO’s Trademark Public Advisory Committee (TPAC) where she advised the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and the Director of the USPTO on matters relating to trademark policies, goals, performance, budget and user fees.

Prior to working in private practice, Ms. Cooney-Porter worked as a Trademark Examining Attorney for over eight years.

Ms. Cooney-Porter has a Bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and a J.D. from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. She resides in McLean, Virginia with her husband and twin teenage daughters.

Max Kaganov

Max Kaganov is a registered patent attorney and practices all aspects of intellectual property law, including utility patent and design patent drafting and prosecution, freedom-to-operate and infringement opinions, and trademark prosecution, oppositions, and cancellations. Max’s utility patent experience spans a variety of arts, such as mechanical engineering, medical devices, RFID devices and the manufacture thereof, wind turbines, as well as batch production, electrical, and software technologies. A particular focus of Max’s practice is the drafting and prosecution of design patents.

Max received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College, where he majored in chemistry with a focus on physical chemistry and materials science. He obtained his Juris Doctor, in the patent law specialty track, from George Mason University School of Law. A native speaker of Russian and proficient in Spanish, Max has obtained  patent protection in the United States for Eastern European and Latin American clients. Max is registered to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office, the Virginia State Bar, and the Florida Bar.

Max Kaganov

Max Kaganov is a registered patent attorney and practices all aspects of intellectual property law, including utility patent and design patent drafting and prosecution, freedom-to-operate and infringement opinions, and trademark prosecution, oppositions, and cancellations. Max’s utility patent experience spans a variety of arts, such as mechanical engineering, medical devices, RFID devices and the manufacture thereof, wind turbines, as well as batch production, electrical, and software technologies. A particular focus of Max’s practice is the drafting and prosecution of design patents.

Max received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College, where he majored in chemistry with a focus on physical chemistry and materials science. He obtained his Juris Doctor, in the patent law specialty track, from George Mason University School of Law. A native speaker of Russian and proficient in Spanish, Max has obtained  patent protection in the United States for Eastern European and Latin American clients. Max is registered to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office, the Virginia State Bar, and the Florida Bar.

Michael J. Collins

Michael Collins has twenty-nine years of experience litigating patent, trade secret, unfair competition and other technology-related matters. In recent years, his practice has concentrated on patent litigation, representing both patent owners and defendants in federal district courts throughout the country. He has also represented clients in post-grant proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, Section 337 investigations before the International Trade Commission and appeals before the Federal Circuit. In addition to patent litigation, Michael has substantial experience representing both plaintiffs and defendants in trade secret matters in the state courts of both Texas and Florida. He was named a “Texas Super Lawyer” in the area of Intellectual Property Litigation in each of the years from 2013 through 2018.

Michael has handled cases involving a wide range of technologies, including semiconductors, oil and gas production, materials science, software, consumer electronics, wireless telecommunications systems, LED display panels, vehicle location tracking, optics, building structures, medical devices, food processing, transportation, conventional and nuclear power, petrochemicals, industrial valves, combined cycle gas turbines, petrochemical catalyst handling methods, corrugated packaging, and flywheel energy storage systems.

Dennis Ahearn

Dennis Ahearn is senior counsel for Maier and Maier.  Previously, Dennis was IP and Technology Law Counsel at Science Applications International Corporation (“SAIC”), Associate General Counsel for Intellectual Property and Technology Law at Lockheed Martin Corporation, and Chief IP Counsel at COMSAT Corporation.  Dennis has a wealth of experience in procuring, managing and enforcing intellectual property rights globally for these and other corporations in major technical areas, and in data rights in Government Contracts, Government cyber-security requirements, IP rights in mergers and acquisitions and other transactions, Open Source Software acquisition, usage and licensing, trademark portfolio development and management, internet usage, and litigation management.  Additionally, Dennis is highly experienced in providing IP development, protection, usage, licensing, sale, and other monetization counsel.  His areas of interest include aerospace and defense, advanced telecommunications, commercial space activities, artificial intelligence and robotics, alternative energy, and internet activities and cyber-security. Dennis received his Bachelor’s Degree in Physics from Yale, completed his J.D. at the University of San Francisco and served in the U. S. Air Force before beginning his law career.

Daniel J. Ehrlich

Daniel Ehrlich is a registered patent attorney and practices all aspects of intellectual property law, including the prosecution and litigation of utility patents, design patents, and trademarks. Daniel has experience working across a variety of technological disciplines, including mechanical engineering, the Internet of Things, software, electrical and computer engineering, and medical device technologies.

Daniel received his Bachelor of Science degree from Vanderbilt University, where he majored in Engineering Science with a focus in technology based entrepreneurship and minored in Economics. The confluence of his pursuits at Vanderbilt led Daniel to pursue a career in intellectual property law. After graduating from Vanderbilt, Daniel worked as a law clerk for a patent litigation firm in Chicago, Illinois. Daniel continued his education at Villanova University School of Law, graduating cum laude. While at Villanova, Daniel served on the Environmental Law Journal and was a member of the Phi Delta Phi Legal Honor Society.

Timothy J. Maier

Mr. Maier is a registered Patent Attorney and practices all aspects of Intellectual Property Law. Mr. Maier’s practice includes patent preparation and prosecution; patent and trademark litigation; design patents, trademark oppositions, patent reissue and reexamination proceedings; interference practice; strategic domestic and international patent and trademark portfolio development and management; patentability, validity, invalidity, infringement, freedom to operate, design around opinions and counseling, patent portfolio landscape analysis and due diligence opinions. Mr. Maier’s technical expertise includes various aspects of electrical engineering, electro-mechanical, mechanical, industrial, wireless technology, software enabled systems, financial systems and telecommunication engineering. Mr. Maier has serviced clients in highly competitive technical areas, including, medical devices, RFID technology, financial products, telecommunications, consumer electronics, cosmetic devices, packaging, semiconductors, e-commerce software, optics, and business methods.

Mr. Maier’s experience and expertise most recently has focused on providing a range of patent services to clients and developing patent strategies that complement the client’s business objectives. In particular, he enjoys developing and managing patent portfolios for the world market, for both start-up, middle market and Fortune 500 companies. To this end, he also analyzes competitors’ patent portfolios and products to counsel clients regarding enhancement and enforcement of their patent portfolio, potential investment of contemplated products, strategic design-around, and acquisition of technology.

Prior to founding Maier & Maier PLLC , Mr. Maier was formerly an attorney with Oblon, Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C. .

Mr. Maier received his Bachelor of Science from Vanderbilt University and Masters in Telecommunications Engineering from George Mason University School of Engineering and his Law degree from George Mason University School of Law. Mr. Maier completed the Intellectual Property Law sequence while attending George Mason University School of Law, an intense concentration in intellectual property law.

Mr. Maier is licensed to practice before the United States Patent Office, Supreme Court of Virginia, Eastern District Court of Virginia, and the Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. He is a member of the Virginia State Bar (VSB), American Bar Association (ABA Patents, Trademarks and Copyright Divisions), Licensing Executives Society (LES), Association Internationale pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle (AIPPI, published articles) and American Intellectual Property Association (AIPLA, elected to two year committee term).

Currently Mr. Maier is a faculty member with Patent Resource Group, providing lectures around the United States to broad audiences on patent prosecution and enforcement in Asian countries, including Japan, Korea and China. and is an author for www.postgrant.com , a leading intellectual property law blog .

Christopher J. Maier

Chris Maier is a registered patent attorney and practices all aspects of patent prosecution and patent litigation, including inter partes review proceedings and ex parte reexamination at the USPTO, international patent portfolio development and management, and opinion work. Chris has experience working across a variety of technologies, including electrical and computer engineering, software, mechanical engineering, and medical device technologies.

Prior to becoming a patent attorney Chris worked at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as a patent examiner. Chris specialized in flat panel display technology as well as associated device driving software and computer control and peripheral devices.

Chris is a frequent lecturer on the latest strategies and trends in intellectual property for both U.S. and international audiences. Chris previously acted as a committee chair for the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) and as delegate for numerous AIPLA domestic and international meetings. Additionally, he previously served as a faculty member for the Patent Resources Group (PRG).